Live in hope, pray for joy

Craig Mathieson

THE year in television is done, with the repeats and shows not considered safe for ratings periods taking over screening schedules. But apart from some DVD box sets, here's what the dedicated television viewer might ask Santa for as 2012 ends and 2013 looms.

12 episodes of a great Australian sitcom

Even though there have been some encouraging signs this year, with the likes of the unannounced A Moody Christmas making converts at the year's end, Australian television still lacks a definitive local sitcom. Given the leaps made with hour-long dramas, it shouldn't be out of the question for a half-hour comedy to strike a chord nationally by making us laugh (obviously I'm not counting The Bolt Report).

11 signed pledges from the main cast of The Shire

Promising never to knowingly step in front of a television camera again until that 2032 ''Where Are They Now?'' special put together by the GoogleNine Neural Network.

10 new episodes of Lena Dunham's Girls

Actually, we're already getting this, but season one was so bracingly good that it wouldn't hurt to put the fix in. Foxtel, you'd better be showing this within hours, not days, of the HBO premiere.

9 minutes

That should absolutely be the maximum amount of time that a show runs over its scheduled finish. This was a definite issue in 2012, especially with live episodes of reality series, and you know there's a problem when the +20 minutes recording length button on the Foxtel iQ still can't capture a show in full.

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8 fewer Big Bang Theory screenings a week

If the first step towards treating a problem is admitting you have one, then the programming execs at Nine have to fess up about their habit of wallpapering the schedule with episodes of the amusing American geek sitcom. Either that, or go the other way and start a Big Bang Theory digital channel and play Sheldon and Co. 24 hours a day.

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7 million dollars

The budget somebody should give Tony Martin to make whatever show he wants, not to mention seven months without network notes to develop it, and seven episodes in a decent timeslot.

6 other fascinating modern Australians

Kerry Packer was a larger than life figure, but he wasn't alone.

And with 2013 bringing the third KP-related mini-series (the ABC's Paper Giants: Magazine Wars) it might be time to broaden the parameters for miniseries subjects.

5 million viewers

The audience size I would like the 2013 finale of Australia's Got Talent to receive now that the Nine Network has picked it up from Seven and dumped Kyle Sandilands.

4 fewer reality competition shows

In 2012, the ranks of the reality contests - whether it was talent, cooking or renovating - bulged dangerously, and lesser shows were shot down and exiled to the digital channels. In 2013, the networks are doubling down, with spinoffs for The Block and MasterChef, and at some point next year we're collectively going to be over hosts shouting ''five more minutes!'' as that crucial week 17 elimination challenge unfolds.

3 hit shows for the Ten Network

The broadcaster of I Will Survive, Being Lara Bingle and Everybody Dance Now, to name just a few failures, has been a punch bag in 2012 and, while television is a contact sport, we need Ten to stay in the game, if only because its failings were so severe that audiences for shows as good as Homeland and Puberty Blues were reduced due to guilt by association.

2 professional commentators for the Nine Network cricket team

Just to break, even for a few overs, the feeling that nothing too thought-provoking will ever be said.

1 calendar for the ABC's programming department

So they can learn that a year has 12 months, and not the three they crammed so many good shows into at the year's end. First-rate productions such as Devil's Dust and Redfern Now - which should been screened on a Sunday night instead of Thursday - could have eased the mid-year drudgery when a nation discovered that Randling actually meant very little.